Monday, August 12, 2013

Beautiful, huh? And for four million bucks, you can have it and the acre of land it occupies on Buffalo Bayou in River Oaks. Unlike the last house we visited, this one is very elegant and spare, inside and out. No clutter here. So there are a smaller number of visible artworks than the previous home, but still this was obviously the home of a serious collector.

And indeed, HCAD identifies the owners as Jeffery and Toni Beauchamp. But Toni Beauchamp died in 2012. That is a reminder that a house for sale is part of a story, sometimes a sad one. Beauchamp was an important person in the arts in Houston. She was one of the first people to work on Houston's art history, writing the extremely interesting chronology in
the 1980 Houston Area Exhibition and Recapitulation: 1928-1960 catalog. There used to be an annual exhibit of art from the region called the Houston Area Exhibition. In 1980, the catalog for that exhibition also contained chronology of all the other juried exhibits and all other key art milestones in Houston up through 1980, compiled by Beauchamp. Now she did many other important things in her life, but as someone interested in Houston's art history, I appreciate this one the most.

But enough of that--what about the art? I only recognize one of the pieces I see in these photos. But I won't say which. If you can identify any of the artists, let us know in the comments section.

Photo 1

There is a small sculpture on a pedestal and a crazy-looking painting here.

Photo 2

From left to right, there is a piece of art above the fireplace, then another over the desk nook, and then a very minimal piece that looks like it is made of two sticks.

Photo 3

Here is another view of the piece over the fireplace--admittedly it will be hard to identify because it's so small in the photo. Good luck.

Photo 4

Another piece over a fireplace--but one almost obliterated by the spotlight on it. You can see a little bit of the image, though. Is that enough to identify it? Not for me, but you readers have good eyes...

Photo 5

In one picture, a man appears to be holding a woman. The other is a black and white portrait.

There you have it. If you know anything about any of this art, please let us know in the comments. And you can see more photos of this house at HAR.